Tuesday Office Day

Woke up at 7:45am today and had a banana for breakfast before setting off to the Health Centre where today’s office day was being held. Arrived at 9:00am and first we had a half hour of the BOE reminding us of some discipline rules and stuff, mainly reminding us to stay healthy in this cold weather and also to drive safe, since there’s already been a few traffic accidents among the ALTs this semester. Today’s office day was with high school students, and it was just amazing to see their English level! They could all speak a very decent amount of English and understand our questions, and it almost felt a little bit weird since I’m so used to talking to elementary school kids! The high school kids were still pretty cute and innocent though, and it was super funny because we had a free 20 minutes ish to talk whilst the teachers were setting up the projector and everything, and the first question the kids asked us was “Do you have a boyfriend?”. Ahh they just don’t change – the elementary school kids ask that same question first too haha. A group of the students did a presentation on a special food project they did at their school, where they made minestrone soup and bread with local products and sold it. They also talked about food problems in Japan, especially how less and less people are eating rice (it doesn't feel like it’s declining though). Their vocabulary was pretty impressive, but it definitely felt like just reading instead of truly presenting, but for presenting in a foreign language, it was pretty good. I really understand it though when my Japanese friends say Japanese people can do grammar (cause that’s all they’re taught in school) but as soon as it comes to conversation and speaking English, it’s like they don’t have any knowledge of English at all. This was pretty apparent when we had the discussion after the presentations. The kids tried their best but couldn't really answer our questions. They were really cute sharing the local foods of Gunma and Japan though, and they were all like “いいなあ” and “食べたーい” when they asked us what we eat for Christmas in our home countries, and we showed them the pictures (go NZ pavlova!).

After the office day ended, I went to Nitori (since I was in the area) to get a humidifier and some other things to help keep warm this cold winter. Ended up buying a foot cushion (my feet get so cold whilst editing photos!) and another fluffy blanket. Also went to a coin car wash to give my a car a clean since it’s gotten pretty dirty. The machines here are so cool, you just put in the coins and enter the option normal wash, wash + wax, etc.) and then let the machine do its job! After that I just went home and did random stuff for the rest of the day. Headed out again to a cafe near the station for another 忘年会 with the support staff (non-teacher staff? Not sure what to call them! It was people like the librarian, tea lady, nutritionist, helpers, tec.) of my school! It was a super lovely night and I definitely felt like I got much closer to them all, which I didn't feel at the school's official 忘年会. Perhaps it was because of the smaller group number. The cafe we went to was really nice and it was only ￥3024 for all you can eat AND drink! The food was really delicious and we all ended up being super full.